Aflatoxin Binding of Lactobacillus casei Poultry Probiotic Farzad Bagherzadeh Kasmani The present study was carried out

to assess the aflatoxin removal potential of L actobacillus casei and to anticipate its efficiency in practical situations. L. casei was studied for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) binding ability and incubated at 37C for different time intervals (0-, 0.5-, 4-, 12-, 24-, and 72-h). L. casei originall y obtained from Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST) . This species was incubated in vitro with aflatoxin B1 and the toxin residue in the supernatant was measured using thin layer chromatography (TLC). The reducti on in AFB1 value was attributed to removal efficacy of strains and expressed as percent of AFB1 reduction. L. casei were observed to possess variable toxin-bind ing ability in the range of 24.21 to 34.60%. The results further support the obs ervation that a number of probiotic bacteria are able to bind specific dietary c ontaminants. The mechanism of AFB1 removal by lactic acid bacteria has been sugg ested as binding of AFB1 to the bacterial cell wall rather than metabolic degrad ation, however, further studies are needed to characterize the binding mechanism s and in vivo bacteria-toxin complex stability. It seems the application of this phenomenon in the removal of mycotoxins from contaminated feed is urgently need ed to improve the safety of feed supply.